Minutes of October 27, 2008 Meeting

This meeting was a short organizational meeting for the next stages of the project. The group first reviewed the experience
to-date, including the release onto the Libraries web site of welcomes in the first group of languages: Arabic, Chinese
(Simplified and Traditional), French, and Spanish. Since the use of other languages was a new experience for the Libraries,
there was a great deal of work to be done before the initial release. For example, the discovery that the Libraries' public
computers did not support display in Chinese caused the temporary substitution of PDF files for HTML. After additional font
support was added to the public PCs, the HTML version of the Chinese pages was restored.

Some lessons were learned for the future. Editing pages in other languages that had already been mounted on the web site
was a laborious process, since all changes had to be hand-coded by the Webmaster and then checked for accuracy by the
translators. Translators for future languages should do everything possible to ensure that the text provided to the
webmaster is absolutely final in terms of word choice and proofing for grammar and punctuation. That should limit the
amount of time needed for checking the final Web version. Also, in addition to HTML, we will make available PDF versions of
all translations via a link for users who prefer to print or download a formatted document.

The group agreed that the future work of the committee could proceed primarily virtually. Since the primary task is to
continue translations of the existing Welcome text, this work can be coordinated with individual translators. The task
force will convene again when substantial decisions or review is necessary.

Discussion turned to the next group of languages to prioritize. We agreed on four languages in the short term. Translators
will begin work on these languages immediately with a target date for completion of text in January, and release to the
public in February. The four languages in this group, of which many of the translations are already underway, are Hindi,
Italian, Persian, and Portuguese. Triveni will be responsible for organizing translations for Hindi and other South Asian
languages. Jan will be responsible for coordinating the Portuguese translation, and Ryan will coordinate translators for
Italian and Persian.

In the Spring semester, work will commence on an additional four languages with a target public release of May 2009. These
languages are German, Hungarian (coordinated by Judit), Japanese, and an additional South Asian language chosen from
Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi (coordinated by Triveni).